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The weekly Union times. volume June 13, 1873, Image 1

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The Weekly Union Times, The Union Times and The Union Daily Times

The Union Daily Times has captured the news of Union County, located in the upstate region of South Carolina, in times of prosperity and decline. Like its neighbors Spartanburg and York counties, textile mills have significantly factored in Union County's history. In the waning years of the 19th century, the mills offered struggling farmers an alternative to sharecropping and provided the impetus for building communities and improving infrastructure. In the 20th century, the loss of the mills dealt the local economy a major blow from which it has yet to fully recover.

The Union Daily Times began as the weekly Unionville Journal, which was established on May 31, 1851, by Robert A. McKnight. In 1859, McKnight and his business partner, William Henry Wallace, changed the name to the Unionville Times. In January 1871, Robert M. Stokes, the former editor of the Laurensville Herald, re-launched the Unionville Times as the Weekly Union Times, "devoted to agriculture, horticulture, domestic economy, polite literature, politics, and the current news of the day." On January 19, 1871, the Anderson (South Carolina) Intelligencer declared the Times "one of the neatest journals in the state," adding, "the people of Union will sadly neglect their duty and interests unless they fully sustain Mr. Stokes in his efforts to furnish them with an acceptable local organ." Josiah Crudup shortened the name of the paper to the Union Times on September 7, 1894.

In 1906, the Reverend Lewis Malone Rice, the pastor of Union First Baptist Church, took over as owner of the Union Times. "A fiery minister of the gospel on Sunday and an equally fiery editor of his newspaper on Monday," Rice paid a price for his social advocacy, surviving several assassination attempts and the loss of his office in 1912 to arsonists. In 1917, Rice started up a daily edition, also called the Union Times; a year later, he discontinued the weekly edition and retitled the daily edition the Union Daily Times. Rice edited the Times right up to his death in 1946, at which time his grandson, William Rice Feaster, assumed the dual role of editor and publisher. Today, the Union Daily Times is recognized as Union County's oldest continually operating business.